Fire Mitigation

Fire mitigation/Wildland Fire

Fire mitigation removes fuels around your house that can create increased heat and exposure to your home in the event of a wildland fire. What is Wildland Fire? Wildland fires include grass fires, brush fires and forest fires. The impact of these fires can be minimized or mitigated by creating a defensible space and taking other Proactive actions to reduce the intensity of the fire and help fire crews fight fires that may threaten your dwelling.

What is defensible space?

Defensible space is an area around your house where fuels and vegetation are treated, cleared or reduced to slow the spread of fire. This area allows firefighters to protect your home from an advancing wildfire. Without defensible space, firefighters cannot safely fight the fire and cannot put their lives at risk to protect property. By creating a defensible space, you increase the odds of your house surviving a wildland fire. Thinning trees, removing brush, mowing grass, and climbing up trees near the house reduces the intensity of the fire around your home. Creating breaks in the vegetation, including breaks between trees, around your house provides natural barriers that help firefighters slow the fire and reduce potential loss. The purpose of defensible space is to prevent a fire from moving from your home to the forest, and vice versa, as well as to provide firefighters with adequate room to maneuver.

The Goal of Fire Mitigation

To improve the safety of your family in the chance that a forest fire should impede onto your property.

To give your home a chance to survive a forest fire on its own.

To improve the health and beauty of your lot and surrounding forest araeas to help facilitate a disease-free environment.

To increase the value, look cleaner and have better views

In a typical fire mitigation plan, there are three zones that should be created around each building on the property (including homes, detached garages, storage buildings, workshops, sheds, and barns).

Zone I – Removal

The removal of all vegetation within 15 feet of the building should be removed, as measured from the edge of the eaves or decks. This includes grasses, brush, shrubs, and trees – all of which become fuel in the event of a fire.

Zone II – Reduction

Depending on the slope of the property, Zone II shall extend out 75-125 feet from the building. Dead, dying, diseased, and stressed trees should be removed in this zone. Trees should be thinned, leaving 10 feet of space between the crowns of the trees. Call a Certified Arborist who can help.

Zone III – Forest Management

This outer zone extends from the edge of Zone II to the property line. The goal of this zone is to protect and enhance the health of the forest. A healthy forest includes a variety of ages, species, and size of trees, all of which should be spread far enough apart to allow room for healthy growth.

As professional arborists, Southern Arbor Services, Inc. will help you design a forestry management plan that best suits your property and needs.